These securities were
chiefly the property of the Common School Fund, and they had been
derived from the sales of public lands in Maine owned jointly with
that State under the agreement made at the time of the separation.
Among these securities was a mortgage upon the property of Nathaniel
J. Wythe, at Fresh Pond. Mr. Wythe had been a trapper for John Jacob
Astor, and he had published a pamphlet upon the region of the Rocky
Mountains. Elisha H. Allen afterwards our Consul to Honolulu, and then
Chief Justice of Hawaii, and more recently Minister from that country
to the United States, was a member of the committee. Mr. Allen and
myself were at Fresh Pond together and under the lead of Wythe we went
to one of his large ice-houses. The month was August and the men were
engaged in removing ice from the house for loading upon the railway
cars. From the top of the house to the ground floor must have been
sixty feet or more. The cakes of ice were sent down in a run, and by
the side of the run there was a narrow foot track, over which the men
passed. Mr. Wythe with a lantern led in going up the track to the
height where the men were at work. Allen followed and I was behind
Allen. When we had ascended about one third of the way, the men above
sent down a cake of ice that seemed at first view to threaten the
passengers on the side track.
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